Disaster in the Garden

Those of you who know me or who have followed my blog, will know that I am a very keen gardener and my garden is my passion, my pride and my joy.

Imagine then, waking up one morning last week after a night of howling winds and torrential rain to be told by my across the road neighbour that one of our our big Eucalypts had fallen over night, smashing the power lines and blocking the road.

We raced outside to find that this was indeed so. The power lines were down along with a stobie pole and a transformer. Lenswood was plunged into darkness!

 But, worse for me, was the fact that it had also fallen on a large part of my garden, taking with it two magnolias, 3 camellias, a large Manchurian Pear, a Gingko that I had been nurturing for years, a Blueberry Ash, a smoke bush, a couple of Australian native bushes, salvias, agapanthus, my sun dial and the fence..

Devastation!!  The culprit was a very large Tasmanian Blue Gum - the last tree in the garden that we would have thought would fall.  The following night the tree next to it came down, its roots loosened by the Blue Gum. I usually park my little car under this second tree, but wisely thought to move it during the day!! We are also concerned about a spotted gum that looks a little wobbly.

You can see the diameter of the root run - my husband is about 5 feet 10 inches.

It took 4 days for the power to be restored and for the road to be cleared. There was a vast amount of damage throughout the state after the storm and they had to "prioritise" where the greatest need was - obviously not us. Now it will take heaven knows how long to clear the trees as the insurance assessors are also "prioritising" and they are inspecting damages to houses as a first call - which is fair enough.

One ray of hope through it all. After the ETSA (electricity)  workers had cleared enough branches to be able to get to the power lines, I discovered - not just one of my magnolias had survived

but a second one also.

Luckily they were not very large trees to start with - though they are somewhat smaller now.

At least we will have decent firewood for next year!!!!

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Our World Tuesday".

 Luckily they were not very large trees to start with, thou